Retired UFC fighter Brendan Schaub became a real-life hero on August 12 when he rushed to the scene of a car accident and began pulling injured children out of a wrecked vehicle driven by a man who was allegedly using the auto to try and kill his entire family.
Schaub and his wife were driving down the freeway in Encino, California, last week when they soon came upon the scene of an accident. As they neared the scene, the former fighter saw a young child waving down people for help. Noticing a smashed vehicle containing several children, Schaub leaped out of his own car and ran to help, MMAFighting.com reported.
One of the other vehicles involved in the accident was a tractor-trailer that had jack-knifed and was spilling fuel all over the area.
Schaub told the site what happened next:
‘The car’s all f***ing mangled, and there’s one other guy there who’s on the scene, maybe it’s the truck driver, I’m not sure, but me and him are the first ones on the scene,’ Schaub said. ‘There’s two kids and there’s a bigger kid and he keeps going, ‘I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die,’ and I go, ‘You’re not going to die, buddy, you’re not going to die.’ I tell the guy back up, so I grab the door, but it’s mangled from the crash, so it’s intertwined with the car.
‘So I break the window, we break some of the window out. It’s already broke, I’m not like f***ing Captain America, so I’m pulling all the shattered glass and I take the kid through [the window].’
The 38-year-old sportsman went on to add that he noticed that the mother of the children was strapped into the front seat and dead. So, he decided to try and shield the kids from seeing their mother that way as he pulled them out of the destroyed auto.
Schaub got choked up, noting that the youngest one — who seemed to be about four or five — was crying for his mother, but Schaub made a concerted effort to keep the kids from seeing their dead mother.
“I kept telling him, ‘Dude, you’re a badass. You’re such a badass. You’re so brave, man. I’m so proud of you. I know you don’t know me, but I’m so proud of you because you’re the reason I stopped and got your brothers. I’m so f***ing proud of you,” Schaub told the wrestling website.
Police later identified the driver of the wrecked vehicle as 31-year-old Cesar Iban Torres, the father of the children and husband of the woman killed in the smash-up.
Police also alleged that Torres had deliberately driven into oncoming traffic to try and commit suicide and to kill his family. Torres survived the accident and tried to run away from the scene. Schaub added that he saw Torres fleeing as he worked to save the running man’s children.
#BREAKING: Prosecutors say Cesar Iban Torres, 31, drove the wrong way with the intent to kill his girlfriend and their four children. He is charged with murder, attempted murder, child abuse, assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest. https://t.co/FnF4MJ9w6p
— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) August 16, 2021
Schaub also said he intends to spearhead an effort to help the children financially after their horrific loss.
The GoFundMe page for the mother’s funeral expenses has raised nearly $50,000.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.
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